Tales from the Titan’s Hammer: A New Beginning
by Drewford T. Justice
Summary: The tale of a young rogue Jedi and the crew of his star ship, caught up in the great war of their time.
1. Chapter 1

Authors notes:  
Welcome to my story, I hope you enjoy and sorry if there is any bad grammar. Oh and as for copy write stuff I don't own Star Wars but I own most if not all the characters in this story. enjoy

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**Tales from the Titan's Hammer:**

**A New Beginning**

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The darkness engulfed him totally and completely. But wait.......there was a light. No. Many small lights..…stars. All around him, he was surrounded by the galaxy itself, floating though its vast space. Viewing worlds from the center of the galaxy to the outer rim, planets he had visited before and planets that had not even been explored. Seeing the past, present, and sometimes the future. This was meditation, becoming one with the Force. Then he viewed an all too familiar planet, his home…Kessel. That horrid prison, those vile mines, and the people unlucky enough to live on that planet were the scum of the universe. He was born there, among them, among the criminals. Not knowing right from wrong, good from evil. To survive, that was the only goal in life, survival of the fittest. Luckily he was brought up by the fittest, the best of the best. His mentor was so good that the Republic had to lock him away because he was a danger to its entire existence. Then he saw himself, not as the teen age boy he had been when we was on Kessel but as the man he had grown into. He stood there with his blonde hair and pitch black cloak being tossed by the evil wind, combat boots gleaming in the red light of the planet's sun. There he stood, on a cliff, looking down at an object moving towards him.

Suddenly Corr was snapped from his meditation by the blare of a warning klaxon, his ship rocked beneath him as it was struck by some object outside the ship.

"Sir, we are under attack by a Mandalorian war party!" called a voice over his personal com system. Corr cursed as he dashed to the bridge of his modified Republic Cruiser his black cloak trailed behind him.

"Why are they attacking us? For all they know we're a bloody peace envoy!" Corr exclaimed.

The deck commander yelled over the sound of the klaxon, "we've tried to open communications with them but they are not responding!"

"Open fire on them captain. We will make a run for it, set a course to the nearest Republic military outpost," Corr ordered as he started to pace the command deck.

Outside the ship, space was filled with laser blasts being exchanged between the Cruiser and the oncoming Mandalorian gunboats and cruisers. The space between the ships was alive with deadly reds and greens, and occasionally the blue of laser and ion blasts

"Our Port shields are down Sir!" the co-pilot yelled.

"Roll us to Starboard then!" yelled Corr as he continued to pace across the bridge.

"Sir, we have a hull breach in the second ion drive," the navigator screamed as the ship lurched," we can't make the jump to hyperspace!"

As the navigator spoke this the captain walked up to Corr, "Sir, you and your friend must get into the Salon Pod, if we can get away quick enough we will join you but if not you will have to leave on your own."

"I am a Jedi I can't just leave you here captain," Corr replied as he brushed his blond hair out of his eyes.

"Sir, you are not a Jedi anymore. You left the order, but that is beside the point. I have traveled with you for over a year now and I know you are a good man but I can't let you-" there was another sudden lurch as a laser blast penetrated the hull.

"Sir, we have multiple hull breaches on all aft decks," yelled the Co-pilot as all the sensor boards lit up with different color lights, most of them red. "We have lost all thrusters, Sir you must get out!"

"Fine, I will go. Farewell captain. Try to get away," Corr said solemnly. He then started to run down to his friend's quarters. He burst through the door and yelled, "Aria we have to get to the Salon pod now, the ship is breaking apart!" The blue Twi'lek in her yellow sleeveless jumpsuit hurried over to her weapons locker, pulled out her blaster and strapped the pistol at her side. The ship lurched and groaned as it started to break apart and the two of them ran as fast as they could to the escape pod.

As they raced through the corridors they passed many crewmen going in different directions. Just as they reached the air lock that lead into the salon pod the cruiser was reeled like an animal as it was hit by a concussion missile. The hallway that they were running down suddenly ripped in two. Corr immediately grabbed out for a handhold on the wall before the vacuum of space could suck him out. He clenched the bar until his knuckles turned white. He took a quick look to see were Aria was. He searched around what was left of the corridor and found her nowhere. He then realized that she was at the end of the hallway getting pulled into the vacuum. Corr quickly did the only thing he could do, he called upon the Force. The Force that bound everything together, that was in everything from rocks to the very space that was now trying to obliterate him.

Corr felt its power swirling around him, filling his being. But in this power there was a dark shadow, it was always there. Always haunting him, always trying to fill his being instead of the light that was now surrounding him. The Dark Side, it represented all evil and malice in the galaxy. He would not give into that evil. Corr shunted aside the darkness and stretched out with the force grabbing a hold of Aria and eerily she rose up to the door controls. She quickly accessed them and they dragged each other inside. They hurriedly closed the door and with a pop, and the cabin repressurized as they gasped for breath. The inside of the Salon Pod was much like a large escape pod, except it had a large table with several chairs, a small locker with supplies and weapons, and an independent sensor system which was much stronger than any normal escape pod. Corr ran over to the main controls and ejected the pod from what was left of the main body of the cruiser.

"We have to get out of here before the Mandalorians spot us on their sensors." Corr said still gasping. But as he looked at the pod's sensor read out he saw that they could take their time, because the Mandalorians were gone.

"Where the hell did they go to?" questioned Aria as she slumped into a chair.

"I don't know. I can't believe they surprised us like that. Everyone on the ship was killed and even my droid is gone," Corr sighed as he sat back and pulled his shoulder length hair into a pony tail. He stood up, letting his black cloak drape over the back of a chair. Then out of the corner of the pod there came a beep.

"What was that?" Corr asked as he drew one of his Blaster pistols. "It sounded like a droid."

Aria jumped a little black astromech droid came speeding out of the dark corner of the pod and smashed into Corr's knees. Aria fell back into her chair laughing as Corr fell to the floor beside the droid.

"I guess you didn't loose your droid after all Corr," she said, between her giggles.

"I guess not. Specs how did you get into here?" asked Corr. The little droid gave a confident twitter.

"You snuck in did you? Thought you would play a little game with me, did you?" Corr teased the little Astromech.

Specs was a R4-P17 astromech droid. The most common droid used by the Jedi. The little black droid had come in very handy at times when Corr had gotten him self stuck in foreign prisons or when he needed to hack into a computer. The little droid was always there for him. Too bad he didn't have him on Kessel, he thought to himself.

"Well at least we didn't lose everyone. Glad to see you made it out of the ship in one piece Specs. It's terrible to even think that they're all gone."

Specs just gave an affirmative beep.

"Aria, get on the sensors and see what planets we are near," Corr ordered.

"We are in the Sidus system. Most of the planets are uninhabitable but there is one that I think has some life on it and breathable atmosphere." Aria said.

"What is the planet called?" Corr asked.

"The planet is called Aquo-Sidus, unfortunately it's not part of the Republic, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem," she said.

"Well then, let's go down and take a look," he replied.

Two hours later they had reached the planets outer atmosphere. Aquo-Sidus was a rather small planet, mostly covered with water, but it had many large forests on its many islands.

"What a beautiful planet," Aria stated, "the water looks so warm and pleasant."

"Well, unfortunately, we won't have time to enjoy it. We need to get off this rock and meet up with the others before they leave us behind." Corr said as he gazed down at the blue and green planet that loomed below them. Suddenly there was a flash through the view port.

"Corr, we have company," Aria said in a tight tone. "They aren't like any ship I have seen before. And they seem to be flanking us."

Then there was a beep from the com display, Corr ran to it and opened up a communications channel. A strong but melodious voice came through the com, "Unidentified escape pod, state your name and business."

"This is Salon pod number five-bee-two-fifteen. Our ship was attacked by Mandalorian raiding party and we are the only survivors from the Republic cruiser Corsica. May we have permission to land?" Corr replied.

There was a long silence.

"Corsica Pod, follow us. Don't think of making any sudden movements. Oh, and welcome to Aquo-Sidus." The voice said.

"Aquo-Sidus fighter, we will follow your lead." Corr replied and shut off the com.

"They seem to be taking us to the largest island in this region." Aria said from the controls."

"I'll go activate the landing gear," Corr said as he walked to the back of the pod. "Specs, come with me. I may need your help. I always have hated these manual landing gear contraptions."

As Corr stepped out onto the landing ramp he was immediately bombarded by the many diverse and new smells of Aquo-Sidus. Everything on the world was so bright and clean, the sky was bright blue almost the same color as the bright water that covered a most of the small planet. The landing bay they were in was sparkling clean and it hurt the eyes to look at it if the sun was shining in the right direction. Waiting at the bottom of the landing ramp was a squad of strange fish like creatures with blasters drawn and at the ready. Corr and Aria walked slowly down the ramp with Specs in rear. _The creatures look like Selkath,_ Corr though as walked down the ramp. They had the long heads and large mouths like the normal Selkath he had seen and the webbed feet and hands. But instead of having blue oily skin which was normal for Selkath they had green scales. They also had a large fin coming out of their back, which was strange for biped aliens to have.

"If you would please lay down your weapons," the Selkath said, Corr and Aria handed their blasters to the Selkath like creatures but Corr pushed his cloak over of his lightsaber hoping that they wouldn't see it. "Please follow us."

The guards guided the trio though the bright streets of Aquo-Sidus. The houses and roads were all surrounded by all different shades of green and all assortments of other colors from the many trees and plants. All the buildings and streets were sparkling white and the roads and streets were all dirt free.

"How do you keep everything so clean?" Aria asked one of the guards, staring around astonished.

"We have many laws that are enforced about cleanliness. We also don't allow any food outside our homes or cafes." The lead guard explained.

"Wow, tough rule to keep. What happens to people who break these rules?" Corr asked.

"They are executed." Replied the Guard, as he gave what looked like a grin.

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yey first chapter is done, please review chapter two is comin out soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's notes: YEY! Next chapter I hope you enjoyed the last one. Thanks to all of you who did serious reviews, unlike my good friend Jon. Well I hope you enjoy this next installment from, The Titain's Hammer. Oh and I don't own Star Wars.

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Everyone was quiet for the rest of the trip, as they gazed around the beautiful city and at the hustle and bustle of the crowds of Selkath-like creatures with Specs giving little astonished whistles every now and then. They were even more astonished when they arrived at the destination the guards where taking them. A huge fortress ascended to the sky in front of them filling their whole view, with seven large towers coming out of the main body of the fortress bristling with turbo-lasers and gun batteries. The fortress itself was like the rest of the city, pure white, with large vines growing up the towers and large gardens all around the outer grounds.

"Why didn't we see this from space?" Aria questioned as she stared up at the huge towers.

"Because there is a camouflage shield above the fortress." Corr said before the guard could say anything. "You can see the generators on the towers."

Aria stared close at the towers and then she noticed small bulges near the top of the towers.

"Those little bulges at the top of the towers are the generators?" she asked.

"Your Captain has a keen eye; yes those indeed are shield generators. But they are not as small as you may think. The towers are very tall but from this distance they look rather minuscule," the leader claimed in his melodious tone, "Ah, we are here."

He pushed open a very large wooden door. "I must now return to my post," the leader stated. "From here, head straight down the main corridor and you will find the governor's secretary. He will tell you where to go from there." And without another word the group of guards marched away back to their posts.

· · ·

The bridge of the Mandalorian cruiser was alive and bustling with officers and warriors going about their duties, but there was one spot where the urgency and bustle did not break through. A lone figure stood in the open place on the command deck staring out into the vast expanse of hyper space. His battle armor glinted in the light of the computers and instruments that were all around him and while everything around him was a whirl of activity, he just stood there seemingly contemplating something.

A distressed officer ran up to him. "Sir we completely destroyed the Republic cruiser Corsica."

"Good work captain," The Mandalorian said as he continued to stare out of the view port. "Was the whole crew obliterated?"

"Well we thought they had been destroyed but—"

"They escaped didn't they?" The Mandalorian uttered as he turned around to face the officer. "You didn't do a thorough job as you had you had promised me you would."

"W-we can still find them Sir," The officer stuttered, "the probe we sent out to make sure we had destroyed them reported that there was an escape pod heading towards the nearest system.

"Helmsman," The Mandalorian called. "Bring the war party out of hyper space and set a course to the system that the probe stated in his report."

"Yes Sir." The helmsman replied.

"I want no more mistakes Captain," the Mandalorian said as he marched out of the bridge.

· · ·

"What do you mean we can't see the governor?" Corr yelled at the secretary.

"It's exactly what I said sir, the governor will not see you at this time." The secretary replied in a rather frustrated voice.

"But I have to see him now I need to get off this planet, why can't you Selkath just let us leave," Corr Yelled back.

"Sir I would prefer that you would not call us Selkath," The secretary said, now becoming angry. "We may look like our Selkath ancestors but we are not them. We are the Ranath. We take it as a great insult to be called that of an inferior species. Now if you would please vacate this building at once. Here is a tour guide for you. Enjoy your stay and remember to obey the laws of Aquo-Sidus." The secretary growled, as he handed Corr a data pad and walked away.

"Well, he was friendly." Aria said, "Where should we go now?"

"Let's take a look at this tour guide that the wonderful secretary so graciously gave us," Corr said dryly.

He quickly scanned through the files looking for anything of interest, but found nothing.

"I'm guessing these guys don't have guests that often," Aria said as she read the file over Corr's shoulder, "there's nothing in here that we can use. We should go look around for a space port and see if we can get a ship out of here."

"I have a feeling that even if there is a civilian space port around here we aren't getting a ride off planet any time soon," Corr mumbled, as he continued to read but aria couldn't hear him due to a loud noise arising.

"Look over there!" Aria yelled over the noise that was now starting to become even louder.

Off to their left, a large crowd of Ranath were kicking and spitting on another member of their species. Corr and Aria hurriedly ran over to the crowd.

Corr quickly dodged a creature running hurriedly away from the crowd, waving a blaster and yelling something that he couldn't quite hear. Corr looked over at Aria and noticed she was starring at the creature that had just run past them.

"What are you looking at Aria?" he questioned as he started to move toward the crowd.

"That creature was just yelling something about an execution," she said in a trance-like way.

"They are going to execute that guy they're beating on?" he asked.

"I guess so," she replied.

The two of them rushed over to the mob.

"We should ask one of them what is going on," Aria stated.

Corr was already way ahead of her as he ran up to the crowd and grabbed a Ranath by the shoulder, dragging him back to where Aria was standing.

"Ouch! What are you doing?! Get away from me you freak!" yelled the creature as Corr dragged him over.

"What are they doing to that guy over there?" Aria demanded.

"We are practicing our rights as citizens! Now let me go!" he yelled as he squirmed under Corr's grip.

Aria questioned the creature again, "What did he do to deserve the beating he's getting?"

"He broke one of our great rules," the creature said as he tried to stand up straight under Corr's grasp, "he brought food and drink outside his home."

"You have to be kidding me. You guys are beating that poor fellow because he brought his lunch out on the street?" Corr questioned in disgust.

"It is forbidden in our culture," the Ranath declared, "Look; even now they are taking him to the execution chamber."

Corr couldn't stand seeing the creature getting beaten any longer. He was a Jedi he had to defend the weak. Letting go of the Ranath Corr gathered the Force around him and then, with a flash, he made a great leap across the street ahead of the mass. He did a mid air flip and landed a few feet in front of the throng, lightsaber in hand. There was the sound of a crack followed by a constant hum as the saber ignited, casting an eerie blue light over his face as he held the saber in a regular combat stance. He held the lightsaber out in front of his body to shield him from any danger. The crowd, not noticing at first, still raged forward. All of a sudden the then the creatures at the front of the mob realized what was standing in front of them.

"Stop where you are!" Corr thundered.

The few Ranath that tried to stop got trampled by the large mass behind them. They were mere inches away from the tip of his blade when they ceased and a blinding flash appeared over the crowd. Many ducked and others looked up to see what it was, only to be blinded by another flash. Corr quickly deactivated his lightsaber so that no one in the crowd would stumble into its deadly blade. Fighting off the brightness that tried to blind him, Corr looked around the area to see where the flashes had come from. Then he spotted them. Two speeders were hovering ten meters away from the edge of the crowd. In them sat several Ranath security guards, one of which was holding a grenade launcher and shooting flash grenades into the crowd.

Then he felt it. A disturbance in the Force! But it was too late. Someone smashed into him causing him to be pushed into an alley. The person who had pushed Corr was now on top of his back, pushing him into the dirt.

"Don't move. You don't want the security to find you," the voice said.

"Can you at least let me take my face out of the dirt?" Corr asked as he tried to pull him self up, but was pushed down into the dirt again. "Please, let me up."

"No you should have been paying attention. If you had been, you would have seen me coming and maybe you would have noticed the squad of security troops that was coming up behind you," the voice said, sounding slightly annoyed and disappointed with him.

"Well you try being focused when you have a flash grenade shot at you. I still can't even see anything! Who are you anyway?"

The voice started to laugh, "Corr, honey, it's me you idiot. That grenade must have affected more than just your sight. Don't you even know the voice of your only friend?"

"Oh. Well I feel stupid now," Corr said as he shoved Aria off him, "but I still can't see."

"Well then wipe the mud out of your eyes," Aria teased.

Corr proceeded to wipe the guck out of his eyes, feeling like even more of an idiot. Jumping up, he ran to the entrance of the alley.

"The guards are rounding up the crowd and taking them away. It's probably a good thing that they didn't pick us up. We should go and find some place to sleep for the night since it's getting late now."

"I agree. Oh, and you might want to get a change of clothes," Aria laughed.

"Why?" Corr asked inquisitively.

"Because that manure I just pushed you in is going to start to stink," Aria chuckled.

Corr stood there looking at himself in disgust. "I'm gonna get you for that one Aria."

"Oh you can try, but you never will," she laughed as she walked out onto the main street. Corr followed her dejectedly, trying to get as much of the crap off him as possible.

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Well thanks for reading and i will see you next time, Farewell.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello to all you people out there! First off I would like to thank all the people who edited, found errors, and reviewed my story so far. Secondly I want to apologize for taking so long to post. But enough babble here is the third installment of the Tales from the Titan's Hammer.

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"Sir, we are entering the Sidus system now Sir," the Mandalorian navigator commented, watching his computer council carefully. "We should reach our destination in twenty-four hours."

"Excellent Captain, alert the other gunboats and cruisers and tell them to ready their troops for an atmospheric drop. Contact me when we are thirty minutes from our destination," The Mandalorian leader ordered, walking smartly off the command deck.

Inside his quarters the Mandalorian removed his helmet that covered his entire face. He gazed at it for a moment with a slight frown. This helmet was the sign that was known throughout the galaxy that represented the terror of the Mandalorian clans. His helmet matched his battle armor, and the battle armor of the rest of his crew, shimmering the platinum silver color of his clan.

The clan Bellare. His was one of the smaller clans, but no less lethal than the clan of their great leader Mandalore, the one man who united all the clans who were once at war with each other. Now under his rule they were at war with the galaxy it self.

Nothing could stop them. If they did not absorb a world, they destroyed it entirely. Not even the Republic could stop them; even the Jedi would not help the Republic because of their great fear of the clans. Instead, they cowered in their temples and enclaves away from the rest of the galaxy, knowing that without them the Republic stood no chance. Even with the Jedi, the Mandalorians would still destroy the Republic in the end. In fact several of the Jedi had gone against their so-called great Jedi Council and joined the Republic military to fight against Mandalore warriors.

It was his job to search out and kill all of these puny rebellious Jedi that seemed to think they could make some sort of significant difference. This he would do. He, Cardin of the Mandalore Clan Bellare, would destroy anything and anyone who stood in his way.

Cardin looked back up from his helmet to the view port in his quarters. Sighing as he looked at his reflection in the glass, he ran a hand down his rough cheek. He was older now, his face scarred from the many battles he had fought in, and his dark eyes glinted like the stars that he now viewed.

Yes, he would live through this war. He alone would rise through the ranks and become leader. But this would take time; time he didn't have. Running a hand through his dark charcoal hair, he continued to gaze at the stars.

· · ·

The Ranath looked up from his desk in the hotel's main lobby and wrinkled his nose, or at least seemed to, at the smell that now emanated from Corr who was walking up to the desk.

"We'd like a room please," Corr stated, looking rather embarrassed at the state he was in.

"I suppose you would like a shower in your room?" the creature asked with obvious disgust.

"Heh heh, yeah. I guess we need that too," Corr replied, his cheeks reddening.

"Room 100, walk up the stairs on your right," said the creature.

"Thank you," Corr smiled as he hurried up the stairs, dragging Aria behind him.

"Ah finally, a shower!" Corr exclaimed, running into the room and starting to peel off his festering clothes.

"I'm surprised the guy at the reception booth didn't pass out from your stench," Aria laughed as she gazed at Corr who was now taking off his jump suit.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't you go stripping in front of me!"

"Oh, sorry," Corr apologized, blushing a deeper shade of red, "I'm just not used to traveling with others. I guess it was just a habit I've gotten into."

"Well, you'd better get used to traveling with others when we get back to the fleet," Aria declared. She sat on the edge of the bed as Corr headed into the bathroom, and started the water.

"Hey, where has Specs gotten to anyway? I noticed that he.....well...isn't here," Corr said over the noise of the shower.

"Oh he's fine," replied Aria, "I left him with a friend."

"We have friends on this planet now?" Corr asked sarcastically, "first they almost shoot us down, then they almost crush us in an insane mob, and now you're saying they are our friends?"

"Yes, yes friends. Now shut up and have your shower," Aria sighed.

Half an hour later Corr emerged from the washroom with a hotel towel wrapped around his waist. "Now for some clothes...,"he commented, looking around the room. He stopped abruptly at the sight of Aria crying on the bed. Rushing to her side and trying to keep the towel on at the same time, Corr placed a gentle hand on her back. "Aria what's wrong?"

"I...I just can't believe they're all gone!" she sobbed, turning and burying her face in his chest, "one minute we were just going along, minding our own business and then wham! They attack us. They killed everyone. Slaughtered them.....like animals...."

Corr sat down beside her trembling form and stroked her Lekku, the sensitive brain tails that came out of the back of her head. Twi'leks use these to communicate similar to the way humans use their hands wile they talk.

"It's terrible that we lost the whole crew," Corr sighed, "but they _will_ be remembered." He couldn't help but look at her as she calmed down, still in his arms. Twi'leks looked so different than humans, and yet, so very similar. With her blue skin, and no hair growing on her smooth head, her kind was treated horribly throughout the galaxy.

A large majority of them were slaves used as play things for evil crime lords. This ravaged their race, but Corr and his master had saved Aria from a slaver who was about to kill her because she would not obey his commands. The Jedi had then taken her in, even though she was not force sensitive, and they found other jobs for her to do so she could earn her keep.

Through the years that had passed, Corr and Aria had become close friends. Corr had been taken into Jedi training later than most, so he had not made many friends. It was nice that Aria was always there. They always counted on each other for almost everything, but how could he help her now? He was so accustomed to the lost of comrades that he didn't know what to say to her.

Without warning the door was kicked in violently with a loud smash, shattering Corr out of his thoughts. Out of reflex Corr reached to where his lightsaber should have been, but quickly realized that he was still wearing his towel.

Aria sat up looking startled, tears still running down her face, as five Ranath marched into the room wearing what looked like official uniforms and holding blasters.

"Get dressed and come with us, NOW," ordered the one seemed to be the leader.

"Why? We did nothing wrong," Corr stated calmly, inwardly worrying about what trouble there was now.

"You were seen at the riot in the east section of town a few hours ago. We have been ordered to detain you," replied the leader mechanically.

"What? We didn't do anything!" Aria yelled in anger as she jumped off the bed and tried to push past Corr. Seeing her expression, Corr had already put out his arm to block her oncoming attack on the Ranath. She stopped fighting him and stood seething mad, using her hand to wipe away remaining tears from her cheeks.

Corr knew they didn't have a choice, but to go with the Ranath, "We will come with you. I would like to get dressed first though, if that's alright with everyone?" Corr asked half-jokingly as he walked over to the washroom. He paused suddenly, seeing his dirty clothes still on the hotel room floor. "Oh....um, I just realized I don't have any clean clothes to wear."

"Wear what you have or we will take you the way you are," the Ranath warned, taking a step forward and motioning towards the stun cuffs that were attached to his belt.

"Okay, okay I'll do it, I'll do it!" Corr sighed reluctantly, walking into the washroom and shutting the door behind him. Moments later Corr walked out in his combat jumpsuit, without his cloak, looking rather dejected and followed by that horrid stench that he had just rid him self of.

"Good, now come with us. And if you would please give us your lightsaber, we don't want another commotion like the one you started earlier."

Corr reluctantly pulled off his lightsaber from his belt and handed it to the Ranath. "The Aquo-Sidus government appreciates your respect for the law," the Ranath smirked as he pushed them out the door.

· · ·

"Commander, we will be at the drop zone in exactly 30 minutes," said the officer who stood before Cardin, head bowed.

"Good, now go back to your post," Cardin said flatly. The officer stood there for a minute, looking like he wanted to say more. "Why do you stand there sniveling, officer?" Cardin growled, "go back to the bridge!"

"Y-yes sir," The Mandalorian officer quickly spun around and retreated out of the room.

Cardin walked over to a tall storage cabinet that sat neatly in the corner of his quarters. Fiddling with the lock for a minute, the door at last swung open. He reached in and lifted out his jetpack, several different firearms and a large blaster rifle. He started to strap the weapons onto his utility belt when he glanced back into the cabinet, taking notice of a polished box. Walking back over to the cupboard, Cardin lifted the box from its place. Opening it and smiling, he peered inside. There were seven polished cylinders...lightsabers, lying there, gleaming in the low light of the room.

He chuckled softly as he gazed upon his treasures. "Soon I will have another to add to my collection of little trinkets," he laughed. Closing the box he grabbed his rifle and helmet and exited his quarters into the corridor of his cruiser. Heading in the direction of the bridge, he smiled evilly. Today looked promising.

"Sir. Glad to see you here. We are about to come into drop range now," the officer reported as he greeted him at the entrance to the command deck.

"Excellent, captain. I want group one to land at the main docking port. I don't want anyone else to get in there. Group two will land in the industrial area and my group will land in the center of the city. I want your gunboats to give us cover in the atmosphere while we drop. Also, I want the cruisers to blockade the planet. Nothing gets off this rock alive," Cardin continued. "I want everyone to search the whole of the main city. Kill what you must, but I want the Jedi's lightsaber or his head. If he is not found, burn the city to the ground and we will move to the next inhabited island. From our last sensor reading their pod landed on the main island. I hope for your sake commanders that they are still there"

"Yes, Sir," replied all the commanders on the deck.

"Now captain, sound the alarm!" Cardin walked over to the ship-wide com system and began barking orders into it. "All Troops to the drop tubes on the double!"

The battle ships roared to life with turbo-laser batteries coming on line and launch tubes opening up. All the ships soared into position at the edge of the atmosphere.

· · ·

Corr awoke to the sound of feet approaching. The Ranath had put Aria and himself in a dark, dank holding cell, with nothing but a metal cot and some rotting sheets which both of them refused to use. Corr was still in his stinking jumpsuit because the Ranath, again, had offered little hospitality. Corr looked down at the sleeping form of Aria who was propped up on his shoulder, he would have offered her the bed but there was a strange substance that covered the floor and it was too dark to identify what it was. So there they sat and slept, for there was nothing else that could be done. Corr's stomach growled as the door of the cell started to creak open. He realized that they had not eaten since they arrived on this planet two days ago. The door opened all the way letting the bright light poor into the room. Corr felt a twitch of Aria's lekku and he looked down, noticing she was awakening. Four Ranath entered the room and one stepped forward with a sour expression on its face. "You are to see the governor now."

"Oh good, that's what we have wanted to do ever since we got here," Aria sighed in relief, now fully awake.

The guard laughed in the melodious tone that all the Ranath seemed to have. "You're not going to like the reason you're going to see him. Now come with us."

The Ranath pushed them from the cell rather abruptly and forced them down the hall.

"Man, do you have to push us so much? We are going where you want us to go," Aria complained, snarling when the guards continued the shove them.

"Stop Grumbling Aria, remember peace over anger," Corr urged, hoping she wouldn't start anything, "Anyway, look we're here."

In truth, they had been walking for about ten minutes and were now standing in front of a pair of black doors made out of a bizarre metal that Corr couldn't identify. The doors were covered in strange runes that, again, Corr had never seen. The blackness of the doors was such a contrast to the white of the rest of the city that it seemed a bit out of place, but it was still nicer to look at than the prison cell that they had just spent the night in. Two guards opened the doors and Corr and Aria were forced into the room.

The office that they entered was like the rest of the architecture they had seen throughout the city, white with no arches or curves but all blocky and straight. The room had only a small amount of furniture and nothing on the walls. There were two white chairs in the middle of the room but beyond these two chairs was a huge desk that was so cluttered with data cards that one couldn't see that the desktop itself was white. Just behind the desk sat an extremely short and scrawny creature. His scales unlike the rest of the Ranath were red and he had a very small dorsal fin on his back, dissimilar from the very large one that the rest of the species had. He wore a grey short sleeve shirt that matched the uniform of the guards that surrounded Corr and Aria; he also wore a black cape. His bare arms were covered with golden tattoos and he had on a strange golden headpiece with a red jewel in the center.   
The creature stirred, then belched in a gruff voice that was so different from the rest of the Ranath Corr had heard, it surprised him. "Guard, what is that horrible smell?"

"I apologize my lord, but it is the prisoners, one of them is covered in some strange perfume that must be popular in their culture," one of the guards said, wrinkling his flat nose.

"It's not..." Corr tried to protested.

"Shut up!" the guard yelled, trying to hit Corr with the butt end of his blaster pistol. With a quick movement Corr had spun around grabbing the guard's arm and sending the gun across to the other side of the room.

The other guards moved in, but just as they were starting to circle in around Corr there was a loud yell.

"Peace!" Everyone looked at the governor as he stood and started to walk around the colossal desk. "Release my guardsman," he demanded and Corr complied. "So you are the Jedi that started the riot the other day?"

"We didn't start the riot," Aria yelled, fed up with the way they were being treated.

"Silence! I am not speaking to you Twi'lek scum," the governor screamed. "You are the whores of the universe, you deserve no respect!"

Aria seemed to snap and dashed towards the small Ranath. Before she could get anywhere near him three guards had tackled her.

"Damn you! You freaking bastard!" she screamed. There was a scuffle as the three guards fought to keep her down.

The whine of a blaster was heard, quickly followed by the smell of burnt plaster. Everyone looked over to where Corr was standing in the other corner of the room with the blaster he had thrown earlier pointed at the roof.

"Thank you," he said, expertly tossing the blaster onto one of the few empty spots on the desk. "Now let me start my points for the day. Point one, governors like you sir, should show ladies some respect. Especially when they are my friends. Two, Aria please try to be reasonable. We don't even know why they have taken us here. And lastly, why _have_ you taken us prisoner?"

The guards had now gotten out of the tangled dog pile and were standing at the ready. "You are in no position to question me, Jedi. I will conduct myself as I please and how I regard others is none of your business. You interest me greatly Jedi," the Governor said as he started to pace the room. "You showed up from no where and have caused such a fuss that several of our citizens were killed. We do not like outsiders, as you may have noticed, and we especially dislike them when they cause a ruckus like the one you two started. This cannot go unpunished, for we must maintain strict rules to live by on this planet. You both will spend five years in our prison and at the end of those five years you shall be released from this planet, never to return again."

"We didn't kill any one," Corr said coldly, "why would we have?"

"Silence!" demanded the red creature, "you have no right to talk prisoner. I want to know where you came from and where you were going. Tell me now or I will make your sentence longer."

"We came from Coruscant," Corr started, "the Jedi temple to be exact. We were on our way to meet a republic military group. While on route, we were pulled out of hyperspace by a Mandalorian raiding party. They proceeded to destroy our ship and we are the only survivors. All we wanted to do was to get off this planet and meet up with our group."

"Ah-ha! So you are one of those rebels. You are no Jedi. You abandoned your order to run off because you want to appease your warmongering appetite. All you Jedi are the same, hiding behind the false pretence of trying to protect the galaxy when in fact you just want to push it into war. When you do finally get your war you just sit and watch wile others die, until there are very few of your Republic soldiers left. Then you will fly in and save the day in all your so called glory so that you will look good in the eyes of the people..." Corr shifted uncomfortably in his place.

The governor continued, "you see Jedi, you know it is true. I see you standing there squirming. You want to kill me; you would do it in a second if you could. But no, you stand by your code like a good Jedi."

Corr just stood there, thoughts racing through his mind. He could kill the scrawny thing right there and then with the flick of his hand, he would watch _him_ squirm. But no, he couldn't. It wouldn't be right; to use the force in such a way would lead to the dark side. He wouldn't follow that path. Not the path of his master. Corr cleared his throat and pushed his hair out of his eyes and spoke, "Sir, I stand here '_squirming' _because I want to correct you but it would be rude to interrupt such a knowledgeable man, I mean fish, as your self." The governor glared at Corr but he continued anyway. "The Jedi do not want war. We do try to keep the peace and, yes, this more times then not ends in violence, but that is not our intention..."

"Yet your started the riot here," the Governor cut in.

Corr cleared his throat, keeping careful control of his anger, "we did not start the riot. We, in fact, tried to stop it. Your citizens were, as one Ranath put it, practicing their rights. Trying to beat up a fellow because he took his lunch to eat outside isn't the greatest right I have ever seen. I thought that I would stop them, so apparently I started it all."

"I still don't believe that. Though that does happen occasionally we rarely have riots," stated the governor.

"You can think what you want," replied Corr, "and as to me leaving the Jedi order. I did that because I saw that the galaxy needed me. I did not stand with the council on this decision to stay out of the war. They may have been right to stay out of this issue, but I had to help."

Aria yawned, "Are you two done yakking yet? I would like to find out if we can get out of here some time soon."

"Oh yes. You can leave any time you wish," the governor laughed cruelly. "Just ask the guards and they will take you to a nice cell where you can get a nice long five year rest."

"You can't be serious!" she yelled in disbelief.

"Oh I am. I thought I told you all this before," the governor cackled in his unnatural voice. "Guards, I grow tired of this, take them away.

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suspense! woo! Next chapter will be out some time in the near future so go read something else for now! if you see any horrible errors or somthing just contact me or put it in your review.


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